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Alt text provides meaningful descriptions of images for students using screen readers. Effective alt text ensures that students who are blind or low vision can access the educational value of visual content. AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can help generate alt text — but only with well-crafted prompts.
The example below demonstrates a well-crafted prompt you can use to generate an effective alt text for one or more images.
Sample Image:
📌 AI Prompt
📌 AI Prompt
I would appreciate your help writing helpful, engaging, and visually descriptive image alt tags for the five images I have pasted to this chat. These descriptions should meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. You need to describe the contents of these images so that a blind student using a screen reader will understand the purpose of the image. The description in the alt text should be 120 characters or less. If any text appears in the image, please include that in the alt text description.
I would appreciate your help writing helpful, engaging, and visually descriptive image alt tags for the five images I have pasted to this chat. These descriptions should meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards. You need to describe the contents of these images so that a blind student using a screen reader will understand the purpose of the image. The description in the alt text should be 120 characters or less. If any text appears in the image, please include that in the alt text description.
✅ Example Output
✅ Example Output
ChatGPT's Alt Text: Bar graph of 2024 renewable energy adoption: Germany (75%), Spain (65%), Italy (60%), USA (50%), UK (40%).
Final Alt Text (after human tweaking): Bar graph of five countries showing Germany (75%) leads in renewable energy, followed by Spain (65%), Italy (60%), the US (50%), and the UK (40%).
💡 Tips for Writing Better Alt Text
💡 Tips for Writing Better Alt Text
Describe the image’s purpose, not just its appearance.
Keep alt text under 120 characters.
Include visible data like labels or numbers.
Omit phrases like "Image of..." unless needed.
Always consider the image’s instructional context.
🔍 What Makes Alt Text Effective?
🔍 What Makes Alt Text Effective?
Effective alt text conveys the purpose and content of an image in a concise and meaningful way, helping users understand what the image communicates without seeing it. The goal is not to describe every visual detail, but rather to capture the essential information relevant to the context in which the image appears.
Here are three trusted resources to learn more about writing great alt text:
Video Resource
Video Resource
🎯 Try This Activity
🎯 Try This Activity
Upload an image from your course into ChatGPT. Use the prompt above to generate alt text. Compare it with a human-written description and discuss any differences in clarity and purpose.
🆘 Need Help?
🆘 Need Help?
If you're unsure how to test reading order, or encounter issues, contact Instructional Accessibility Designer Terisa O'Dowd for support:
todowd1@twu.edu
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